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Girolamo Godi, organizer of a Vicenzan literary salon and friend of Pietro Bembo and Alvise Cornaro, engaged Gualtiero Padovano around 1550 to decorate the villa. In addition to the loggia, the decoration of four rooms in the right wing of the villa can be ascribed to Gualtiero: the Hall of the Gods or the Putto, the Hall of the Triumphs, the Hall of the Caesars, and the Hall of the Sacrifices. Gualtiero’s sudden death in 1552 prevented him from completing the work which was taken over by Giovanni Battista Zelotti, who created the frescoes in the central hall, the Hall of Olympus, the Hall of the Arts, the Room of Seasons, and the Hall of the Muses. In the latter the contribution of Battista del Moro (c. 1515-c. 1573) is assumed.

The frescoes in the Villa Godi represents the apex of Zelotti’s work, thanks to the harmonious fusion of decorative elegance, careful chromatic relationships, and the skilful use of illusionistic perspective.

In the central hall, imposing, monumental arcades with projecting trabeation, crowned by tympanums, stand out against the walls like stage sets, framing two episodes from the life of Alexander the Great. In a faux gilded frame, the allegoric scene Hercules at the Crossroads is depicted. The tall dado that runs around the room is embellished with small monochrome panels.

The painting depicts a scene with sportsman offered refreshment outside an inn while his dogs rest after the hunt. This Italianate landscape is an early work, and painted while Hondius was still living and working in his native city. Hondius is better known for his later, more violent hunting scenes, that are related to the works of Flemish masters like Frans Synders and Jan Fyt.

The kneeling statue was made for the funeral chapel of Birague in the church of Sainte-Catherine-du-Val-des-Ecoliers in Paris, after the contract concluded between the daughter of the deceased, a cousin and Germain Pilon on February 1, 1584. The broad design of the tomb, which was destroyed when the church was condemned in 1783, is known to us from a drawing made in the 17th century. It included bronze sculptures flanked by columns.

The contract tells us that the statue was “painted, coloured and filled out accordingly and to the life”. The cloak was painted red, since Birague, a native of Milan who had taken French nationality in 1565 and in 1573 was appointed chancellor of France, took holy orders after his wife’s death and became a cardinal in 1578.

With a hefty dose of sarcasm, Sir Joshua Reynolds painted a fantastical School of Athens. The painting portrays real and picturesque figures, all of whom English gentlemen who instead of being shown in a sumptuous representation, as in the case of Raphael’s School of Athens, are very ill-mannered fellows. One is even lying on the ground, modelled after Raphael’s Diogenes, and, naturally, there are dogs. This coterie includes other figures who are laughing and making faces. The setting has a Gothic air and the palette is very dark. This was an exceptionally critical and grotesque representation of these circles that toured Italy, which Reynolds parodied heavily.

The painting is for the most part the work of Bartolomeo della Gatta. But, amidst the numerous figures that populate the scene, there are some whose anatomical description is full of energy and who convey powerful emotions: the young nude seated in the centre, for example. Luca Signorelli’s hand appears quite obvious in this detail, and in others as well.

The emphatic structure of the Roman ruins in this painting is completely in line with the classicism of the later Paul Bril and of Annibale Carracci.

In the month of April, 1628, the two brothers, Domenico and Valore Casini, consigned five portraits of personages belonging to the Medici family to the Guardaroba, for placement in a hall in the Pitti Palace. The portrait of Clement VII (Giulio de’ Medici, natural son of Giuliano, the brother of Lorenzo the Magnificent) belongs to this series.

This charcoal drawing highlighted with pastel shows the same singer in the same pose from two different angles. Her pose is an attitude interpreting what she is singing. Degas has plainly been trying to find the best way to capture that image.

In this scene, lit by random flashes from above, huntsmen pursue a fallow deer through a luxuriant glade, cleared of large-leafed trees and carpeted with reeds and low shrubs.

The subject is taken from Ovid (Met. 9:101-133). On a journey, Hercules and Deianira came to a river where the centaur Nessus was the ferryman. While carrying Deianira across he attempted to ravish her. Hercules, already on the further bank, drew his bow and slew Nessus.

Waldm�ller’s landscapes represent his art at its most vivid. They show a remarkable clarity, particularly in the use of colour. Most of his landscapes depict sites in the Wienerwald - the woods around Vienna.

This spring scene was one that obsessed Waldm�ller in the last months of his life. He painted four versions of the subject.

This fragment of a fresco was executed for the decoration of Kaiserbad in Regensburg. (Other fragments are in the Städtishes Museum, Regensburg). The importance is given to these fragments by the fact that no wall other wall paintings survived from the masters of the Danube school (except a damaged fresco by Wolf Huber in Neuburg am Inn.

Recent technical examination of Gossart’s paintings led to the suggestion that Gerard David collaborated with Gossart on some paintings including the present Adoration. It is assumed that, in addition to some other details, the head of the Virgin was painted by Gerard David, whose influence on Gossart is shown by a comparison with David’s Adoration of the Kings in London.

In the beginning of the eighteenth century, churches in Spain were filled with arrangements of columns, entablatures, reliefs, and sculpture in an attempt to create a sense of the ‘Gesamtkunstwerk,’ or total work of art. This concept was characteristically Baroque. The large and richly decorated altarpiece of the church at Medina de Rioseco is an example of this tendency. The altar was the product of a collaboration between two of the best known artists of the day, having been designed by Joaqu�n de Churriguera (1674-1724) and constructed in the workshop of the sculptor Tom�s de Sierra Vidal.

The picture shows a stamp of the Principality of Liechtenstein (under Austrian administration), with the nominal value of 20 Heller, issued in 1917. It depicts Prince Johann II, Prince of Liechtenstein (1840-1929). The postage validity was from 14 June 1917 until 31 January 1921.

Koloman Moser was one of the first artists to design stamps in the Jugendstil style, including the first stamps for Liechtenstein (1912-18).

The cavernous background gives an immediate impression of a ship’s hold but there is all the detail of a still-life in the carefully painted armour, drum, saddle and guns seen in what must be an arsenal. It is only the figure of the officer with his plumed headband which makes this a genre painting. Like most of Dou’s works this picture is quite lacking in incident. The man is no more than a carefully painted object included in the picture along with the rest of the contents of the store-room.

This is Plate 18 from the series Tauromaquia.

While working on The Disasters of War, Goya also etched 33 plates, which he offered for sale under the title of Tauromaquia (The Art of Bullfighting). Here he depicts a famous torero, seated on a chair and with his feet tied, preparing to deliver the bull a fatal thrust. A moment of extreme tension, which Goya makes palpable by abandoning the traditional rules of perspective.

Suggested listening (streaming mp3, 3 minutes):

Georges Bizet: Carmen, Prelude

This is a large brooch of gold and enamel in the form of a hornet hovering by a flower, the stem of the flower curves back on itself then swirls into the distance. It combines the ‘wavy line’ and the inspiration of flowers and insects - all typical features of Art Nouveau jewellery.

The painting is a variant of a painting (present location unknown) by Niccolò Rondinelli. Rondinelli was an assistant of Giovanni Bellini, and perhaps he used a now lost composition by Bellini as a model.

The present panel is one of the two authentic paintings by Rosetti. It is signed on the parapet below with Greek letters: “Joannes Baptista de Rositis Fotoloviensis pinxit theo toco - 1507”.